A few weeks ago, Facebook
bought mobile messenger WhatsApp for a staggering $19 billion. Analysts
batted the number back and forth, some calling it a colossal waste,
some calling it a steal, but everyone generally reeling from the sheer
scale of the valuation. Facebook just bought Virtual Reality company
Oculus Rift for $2 billion — it may not be as expensive as WhatsApp, nor
as widespread, nor as simple to use, but that’s what makes it so
interesting. Facebook just put itself ahead of the curve for one of the
first times since its inception.
The Oculus Rift is a bizarre, maddening and beguiling beast. I’ve
used it in several iterations, from its motion sickness-inducing early
days to the much slicker Crystal Cove prototype. It feels — and this is a
rarity in tech, or anywhere, for that matter — new. In Silicon Valley,
that alone can be worth the price of admission. The fact that the guys
that made these goggles in the first place now have the resources of
Facebook behind them is encouraging, to say the least.
The fact that there is an ocean of monetizable uses for the Oculus
is, you might say, a bonus. That it isn’t immediately evident what
exactly a website that serves up cat memes and baby photos wants with
virtual reality is immaterial. From conference calls, virtual tourism,
goggle-sized home theaters and more, this technology could reshape the
way we interact with a broad swath of the virtual world. And we
shouldn’t forget games, where the Oculus started in the first place.
Facebook just became a player in that space in a way it never has
before.
It’s new technology, it’s scary, and it will likely be several years
before developers can really wrap their heads around it. It has also
failed before, in an era of lesser technological sophistication. But
that’s what makes this such a good time to buy.
Sony announced
its VR prototype last week at the Game Developer’s Conference, and we
can rest assured that there is no major technology company, from Valve
to Microsoft to Google
and maybe Amazon, that isn’t playing with this tech in some way, shape
or form. Facebook now has one up on all of them in terms of name
recognition, developer relations, and possibly technological
sophistication.
With both Instagram and WhatsApp, Facebook took on the role of a
besieged behemoth, plucking up competitors in exchange for huge sums of
cash. This feels different — this is Facebook using its war chest to
shoot to the front of the pack in a new, untested, and potentially
gigantic market. That’s exciting, and Facebook could use some of that.